Mobile Web Pages Must Be Small
Two news items about the Mobile Web bring to mind that troubling truth about Screen Resolution. It is like the Gordian knot of web development.
Web designers now regard the minimum screen resolution for a desktop PC as 1024 pixels by 768 pixels. On the other hand (most appropriately), a smart phone may be as large as 480 pixels by 320 pixels. Looking at the cell phone, you are down to possibly 128 pixels by 160 pixels.
The mathematics of this mean that if you try to look at a desktop PC web page on your smart phone you must scroll down 5 times as much as you did on the PC. The cell phone is even worse forcing you to scroll down 38 times as much.
Nevertheless, the word is that The Mobile Web is the New Hangout. One indicator is that the Opera Mini Browser Sees ‘Explosive Growth’
Opera claims that the browser has seen a whopping 157% year-over-year growth, with more than 23 million people using Opera Mini in March 2009. This represents a 12.1% increase from February 2009 and more than 157% up from March 2008. The page view figures are impressive too, with users viewing more than 8.6 billion pages during March 2009, up 17.4 per cent on the previous month, with year over year page views increasing 255%.
We can assume that this did not involve all that scrolling down that would be involved if they are looking at desktop PC designed web pages.
Not surprisingly given this explosive growth, the BBC is asking, Is the mobile web coming of age? The article has some most interesting quotes.
EBay’s senior director of platforms and mobile Max Mancini states:
The first hype cycle on mobile failed because people wanted to recreate the desktop on the phone. The mobile device is not an alternative view into the web. It is a different experience. It might be an extension to different things on the web, but the real winning application on mobile will be the things that will be very unique to what you can get from a mobile device like the camera, the location, the address book and the communications.
Ernest Doku, of comparison site Omio.com, agrees:
We should not be looking at replicating the desktop on mobile. What people want on their phone is very different from what they want to experience seated in front of a PC.
Others are of a like mind. One of the most insightful comments is from Sir Tim Berners Lee, who told the BBC:
In developing countries it’s going to be exciting because the Mobile Web is the only way that a lot of people will actually get to see the Internet at all.
Google’s vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said the migration to mobile was a natural progression for the world’s leader in internet search.
The entire world is moving to mobile and mobile is the most personal of all personal computers. This year we are going to sell more internet-connected phones as an industry than the entire notebook market. These devices will become our agents, support us with advice, be our friends.
The explosive growth is not new. Last year it was noted that Small sites drive big traffic on the mobile Web. The question was asked whether website owners were ready for the Mobile Web, which was the Next Big Thing.
The preferred solution at that time was to design websites with The One Web Principle in mind. By a process of Adaptation, the website would deliver the appropriate web page content dependent on the mobile device that was attempting to display the web page.
That is a very challenging approach. Clearly there are some things that should be avoided in mobile web design. Some major effort must be invested if Web Sites Are To Adapt to Mobile Access.
Perhaps a surer route is the approach that some adopt, which is to have a number of parallel websites, each designed for a particular range of devices. It is what has been called The Multi-Web Practice.
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BPWrap
April 28th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
I think that websites should have a sort of resized version of resolution specially dedicated for mobile phones.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Some good points there. I totally agree with Sir Tim Berners Lee’s point that many people will ONLY experience web through mobile.
Most important part of designing for mobiles is not just screen resolution but also easy navigation. If you have used gmail through mobile browser (not the client) you will see they have an excellent design where they even managed to put keyboard shortcuts on their mobile website.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:19 am
Yes I agree with you. Mobile web pages must be small
May 4th, 2009 at 4:04 am
But I prefer to go online with the phone, I smartfone and all pages should be clearly legible!
May 4th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
No doubt that the Opera Mini is one of the most common mobile web pages browsers (I think it’s the hottest internet browser of all), due to its small and compact size!
May 5th, 2009 at 8:51 am
I’ve had a number of high end mobiles over the last few years, starting with the HP ipaq, the JasJar, Palm Treo 750 and various blackberry’s including my latest, the Blackberry Storm. I am really impressed by the change in screen resolution over that period. My latest is really very similar to a desktop browsing experience with the single exception of the scrolling and zooming in and out aspects. But you do quite quickly get used to using these new functions and now I can browse quite quickly and easil.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I don’t know why, but i don’t like it when a site has a lot of versions (PC, mobile, etc). In my opinion it’s not the best decision.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:51 am
of course they must be small, we must make them small, simple and attractive yet full of useful information
June 5th, 2009 at 9:22 am
I think the success to mobile websites often boils down to one question: ‘how can I take the effort out of my site for mobile visitors.’ Put the most important features (i.e. those that convert directly to money) up front and center.
June 7th, 2009 at 5:46 am
This has big implications for those of us who write for the web and indeed train people in web writing.
It seems to me one solution is to completely rethink your website for mobile users and then offer visitors a PC or mobile option on your home page. This would be similar to those organisations that offer multiple versions of their website in different languages.
To begin with you may want to focus on providing content specifically targeted at the needs of those on the move. But ultimately, I suspect, mobile users will want access to all the material and options that their PC-based brothers and sisters currently enjoy.
It means more work for writers and developers, and therefore more expense for the website owner, but in the end the reward could be lots more traffic.